Randy Smith
UTC's Athletic Director David Blackburn is on the road this week looking for a new head football coach. The Richmond Spiders took the Mocs' head coach Russ Huesman away for a lot more money, better training facilities and a much better situation. Huesman, who guided the Mocs to unparalleled success in his eight seasons as head coach actually had a tougher decision to make than one would think simply because UTC is his alma mater.
Huesman took over the Mocs' helm in 2009 after Rodney Allison was let go.
He had spent several seasons as the defensive coordinator at Richmond and helped them win a national championship in 2008. He immediately had success and in his eight seasons put together a 59-37 record with three straight trips to the FCS playoffs. His goal was to win a national championship and while that goal wasn't reached at UTC, the groundwork has been laid for the next guy, whomever that will be.
Most Mocs' fans are sad to see Huesman go, but they all seem to understand why he's leaving. A new salary that's more than double what he was making at UTC is just too tempting to pass up. Richmond has more tradition as well and it may be easier to reach that goal of winning a national championship.
So who will become the new head coach at UTC? The popular fan favorites are former Huesman assistants Will Healy who finished his first season as head coach at Austin Peay, and Marcus Satterfield who just wrapped up his first season at Tennessee Tech. Notice that I said they were fan favorites and not necessarily top choices for the job. David Blackburn, himself a leading candidate for the job as AD at Tennessee will make that choice and his track record of hiring coaches at UTC is golden. Jim Foster as women's basketball coach and Matt McCall as the Mocs basketball coach have proven to be excellent hires.
It seems that UTC is returning to the "stepping stone" image it had a few years ago. A place that young aspiring coaches can work for a few years and then move up the coaching ladder to a bigger school, or one that offers more money and a better opportunity. That's been the case for former women's coach Wes Moore, former men's coach Will Wade and now Russ Huesman. Being a place that has a reputation for being a "stepping stone" in the coaching world isn't really a bad thing, it just means that you're going to lose coaches long before you're ready to let them go.
So we now must say goodbye to Russ Huesman and welcome his replacement with open arms. It's going to be hard to say goodbye to Russ. Remembering when he played as a hard-nosed defensive back for Joe Morrison and Bill Oliver in the early 1980s, reconnecting with him when Richmond played at Finley Stadium for the National Title in 2008, and watching his teams become contenders again in the Southern Conference, he most definitely left the Mocs and their fans with a ton of great memories. So good luck Russ..... we hope you do well and even win that national title......just not before your replacement wins one here in Chattanooga.
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer.
His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for 30 years.
He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.
In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have five grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, Mattingly, DellaMae, and CoraLee.